Studies of listening in the past have almost consistently been of the observer type, where participants watch a videotape and/or listen to an audio tape as stimulus material. However, a more accurate measure of true listening ability can only be done in an interactive setting. A study measured relational listening (an individual's ability to understand the other conversant, realize that they have been understood, and feel that they have been understood), and examined gender sex types as possibly more accurate predictors of individual differences than biological sex. Subjects, 136 undergraduate speech students at a mid-size southern university, participated in conversation with one another and were then tested on their understanding of the other. Results showed: (1) no gender differences, confirming findings that there are no systematic differences in listening superiority between the biological sexes; and (2) that sex-typed females were more accurate than sex-typed males at realizing when they had or had not been understood, thus indicating that feminine processing more effectively utilizes both content and relational message material to understand and be understood in conversation. (One table of data is included; 42 references are attached.) (SR)